speechwriting
Speeches, Eulogies, and Toasts that move, inspire, celebrate, and motivate.
Authentic, heartfelt, original content you can deliver with confidence. You've got this and I've got your back!
EVENT SPEECHES
- I conduct phone interview(s) with you.
- We discuss your speech goals, parameters, length, theme, topic, and tone.
- We discuss the audience and plan accordingly.
- I draft the speech for you.
- You review the draft and we discuss proposed revisions.
- I revise, polish, and deliver final speech to you.
conference speeches, award presentations, & signature talks
- We meet by phone or Zoom to discuss your speech parameters, length, theme, topic, and tone.
- We discuss the audience and plan accordingly.
- Together we create a detailed outline for your talk or speech.
- I draft the speech for you.
- You review the draft and we discuss proposed revisions.
- I revise, polish, and deliver the final speech to you.
GRADUATION AND COMMENCEMENT SPEECHES
- I conduct phone interview(s) with you.
- We discuss your speech goals, parameters, length, theme, topic, and tone.
- We pay special attention to acknowledging school faculty, administration, and others who may precede or follow your talk.
- I draft the speech for you.
- You review the draft and we discuss proposed revisions.
- I revise, polish, and deliver final speech to you.
You write/We discuss/I revise
and polish your speech draft
- You submit your speech draft to me.
- I review the draft.
- We meet by phone or Zoom to discuss revisions and your audience.
- I edit, revise, and polish your draft for you.
- You review my revised draft and then we discuss.
- I finalize and deliver your speech to you.
No One Can Write Your Speech Like a Biographer
I am a professional biographer as well as a speechwriter. In 2018, after being a memoir ghostwriter/biographer for decades, a colleague asked me whether I had ever considered writing speeches. In that moment, I was struck by the similarities between the two types of writing. Both types of writing entail listening deeply and then capturing and expressing your thoughts and emotions in writing.
When I am interviewing clients and writing their stories, I am writing about their lives and experiences in their voice. When I am interviewing clients for a speech, I am helping them express themselves, in their voice, related to whatever they are going to share at an upcoming event. I absolutely love writing speeches! There is so much to consider: striking just the right tone to match the event, taking into consideration the audience, staying within the parameters of the time allotted for the speech, and more. I find all of it very rewarding.
Since 1999, I have ghostwritten countless bios and over thirty published memoirs. Since expanding into speechwriting, I have written numerous speeches of various types. I take great joy in helping you prepare for the biggest events and moments of your life.
Your Peace of Mind is My Business
You want the peace of mind and confidence of knowing that you can stand and deliver a speech that makes you proud.Whether you want to move, inspire, inform, celebrate, or motivate, you want to be at your best when you give your speech.Your peace of mind is my business. I can help in whatever way best suits your needs. I can write your speech for you, edit it, or coach you in writing it yourself.
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anniversary, birthday, and party speeches & toasts
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WEDDING SPEECHES, TOASTS & CUSTOM VOWS
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GRADUATION & COMMENCEMENT sPEECHES
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eulogies and obituaries
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SIGNATURE TALKS & PRESENTATION SPEECHES
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RELIGIOUS OBSERVANCES & RITES OF PASSAGE sPEECHES
Fees
EVENT SPEECHES
$100 per speech minute
Phone interviews included
3 minutes/$300 minimum
1 revision included
Extra revisions $85/hour
Conference Speeches Award Presentations Signature Talks
$125 per speech minute
Phone interviews included
4 minutes/$500 minimum
1 revision included
Extra revisions $85/hour
Revising Your Draft
$85/hour for each round of revisions
$85/hour for each phone conference to discuss revisions
Graduation speeChes
$100 per speech minute
Phone interviews included
3 minutes/$300 minimum
1 revision included
Extra revisions $85/hour$100 per speech minute
Phone interviews included
3 minutes/$300 minimum
1 revision included
Extra revisions $85/hour
Commencement & Keynote Speeches
$125 per speech minute
Phone interviews included
4 minutes/$500 minimum
1 revision included
Extra revisions $85/hour
My Clients Say
- What a day! Thanks for your help! I hit a grand slam thanks to you. Vivien was able to put me at ease as soon as I told her the difficulties I have about writing my speech. She was also very helpful in making my speech humorous but not over the top—and most importantly from the heart. Both of which were exactly what I’d hoped to find. Highly recommending doesn’t seem to cover my recommendation. 10 stars out of 10!
- ~ C. Sheehan, Retired United States Secret Service driving instructor
Working with Vivien was one of the best experiences ever. She helped me write a great speech for a competition I was in. She listened to everything I said and helped put into words exactly what I was feeling. Thanks to Vivien I won the contest and look forward to working with her again. Best decision I ever made was to work with her.
~ Jawn Marques, Mr. San Francisco Leather 2019
Vivien, WOW! I cannot thank you enough for helping my son with his graduation commencement speech. You made it into a masterpiece as the words come alive, jump off the paper. Your ability to turn his experiences and ideas into the extraordinary truly elevated his speech. I know the graduation class, teachers, parents etc. will be hanging onto every word. His speech is now funny, moving, inspiring and, most of all, heartfelt and he cannot wait to share it with everyone. We are beyond grateful.
~ Marie, a mom in Connecticut
Speech Samples
SAMPLE:
4-minute speech for Glen, a Canadian businessman to give at the memorial service of an employee/friend.
I knew Gordon for over fifty years. We first met when I was seventeen or eighteen and still in high school. I was working at X menswear store in Owen Sound. Gord was the window-display trimmer across multiple store locations and Owen Sound was one of his stops.
He excelled at his craft and was recognized by many of his peers. It was easy to see how he earned his great reputation. All you had to do was watch the pride he took in tying the perfect knot in a tie. Every window display of Gord’s had his signature artistic flair.
From time to time, Gord would roll into town, his enthusiasm and personality larger than life. When he first arrived at the store, he would do a short assessment of what he needed for the window and give me the task of preparing it for him.
“I need all of this ready in an hour!” he would say, and then disappear.
I would get busy finding whatever he needed and, right on time, he would return in an hour. He would spend the rest of the day doing his exceptional window work, all the while entertaining us with stories. Then he would roll back out of town. There was never a dull moment when Gord was in the store.
Fast-forwarding through time, I progressed at Grafton’s, moving up through the ranks from part-timer to store manager, to supervisor, to general manager. Finally, I bought the company. While I was progressing through the company, Gord was also rising through the ranks, eventually ending up as the head of display for the entire company. During those years, he became a good friend and colleague.
Many of my close friends worked for X, Inc. and we often got together after work. Gord was always fun to have a beer with, and everyone had a better time when he was around. He was known as one of the funny guys in our crowd, but he and I also had plenty of heart-to-heart talks and more serious business discussions.
“I’ve never missed a budget!” Gord would always remind me.
I’m not sure that budget didn’t have a little elastic in it, but that’s neither here nor there. I appreciated his dedication to the cause and his enthusiasm.
He also liked to remind me, “I’ve never missed a day of work in all these years!” Truer words were never spoken. That was quite a feat, given that he started working for X when he was fourteen years old. In addition to being a fun-loving guy who loved to laugh and joke, he was an extremely dedicated member of the X team, exceptional at what he did, and efficient in his position.
Gordon made the world a better place and he will be missed very much. He didn’t have a bad bone in his body and he was loyal to a fault...
SAMPLE:
Excerpt from a 45-minute “signature talk” for J.A., an entrepreneur in Miami.
First thing you have to do is be ordinary…I’m just like you, I’ve walked in your shoes:
My name is Javier X and I am…(describe your business role here). I am a husband, a father of three children, and the son of Cuban immigrants. I have always considered myself an ordinary guy next door.
When I was young and working at a bank, I noticed that some of our wealthiest bank customers were in the mortgage industry. I also knew that my future wife’s next-door neighbor seemed to be doing very well in the mortgage business.
So, when I was given the opportunity to go to work as a loan officer for him, I jumped at it. It took me about six months to close my first deal, and then I was off and running. I was nineteen years old and doing very well as a loan officer for this mortgage company. I became very successful and learned the business as I went along.
I decided to open my own mortgage company. My winning streak continued. I was a successful young business owner and everything I touched turned to gold. America was having a real estate boom and everything looked very promising.
What could go wrong? The big financial collapse of 2008, that’s what! I was not quite thirty years old. I was hit hard, like most of America. And now I had big problems to solve—not only for me and my family, but for the people I had working for me. It’s hard to put into words all the emotions I was feeling at the time. All I can say is that it was very, very difficult.
Not quite ten years before, around the same time I opened my own mortgage company, I married the girlfriend I told you about. So, during this big crash, my wife was pregnant with our third child. We already had two toddlers.
It was hard to sleep at night. I worried about how I was going to provide for my family and pay the mortgage on my home, and I worried about what was going to become of my employees. I had seen the writing on the wall about a year earlier and probably should have pulled out earlier.
I closed the doors on my mortgage company on October 31st of 2007, filled with mixed emotions—relief and shame. Meanwhile, my youngest son had been born on July 2nd of that year, right as everything was beginning to fall apart.
The dominoes started to fall. I still had my home—but didn’t know how I was going to pay for it. When our baby son was a couple of months old, my wife had to go to work full-time for the first time in her life, and put our son in daycare.
For the first time in my life, I had failed. What was I going to do now? How was I going to earn a living without a college degree, support my family, keep from losing my house?
SAMPLE:
1-minute competition speech for J.M. in San Francisco. (He won the competition.)
I had no idea my late husband was suffering until he took his life. Look around you. There might be individuals in this very audience who are feeling hopeless right now. Data shows that over a third of all transgender individuals, for example, attempt suicide. Could you tell if someone was feeling hopeless or suicidal? Many suffer in silence and never let on.
Consider the documentary, The Bridge. A man crosses the Golden Gate Bridge feeling like, Nobody loves me. Nobody cares. I might as well jump. When no one he passes on the bridge shows him any kindness, he jumps. Midair, he realizes he wants to live. Miraculously, he does.
We can’t necessarily read the secret heart of another and recognize their silent suffering. What we can do is be kind and caring to everyone in every interaction. We can let others know they’re valued and worthwhile. It’s worth gold.
Our community is a safe place. Let’s reach out to the entire San Francisco community and let them know we are a safe place. They’re welcome here. We have a legacy of creating inclusivity, diversity and change. Let’s be an inspiration and a light in dark times. We just might change—or save—a life.
SAMPLE:
3-4 minute speech for a cancer fundraiser in the southeast given by R.H. on behalf of his wife, a cancer survivor
Good evening everyone. I’ll bet you’re saying to yourself, Wait a minute…that’s not Betty!
I never could resist my wife’s Southern charms, so when she asked me to stand in for her, I said yes.
Betty considers herself one of the lucky ones. Her cancer was found early, she went through chemo without being horribly sick all the time, and she didn’t have to undergo radiation. And that’s the message she wanted me to pass along to you—that going through cancer doesn’t have to be catastrophic and devastating. And it doesn’t have to be a death sentence.
That’s Betty for you—always one to find the silver lining. She went through her cancer ordeal with courage, poise and grace, and without ever complaining. She kept people on a need-to-know basis, and never let our three kids see her scared. And she did it all with a sense of humor.
“I’ll tell you one thing,” she said to me when she learned she was going to have to have chemo, “there’s no way I’m losing my hair! I’ll deal with everything else, but I’m not losing my hair.”
The trouble all started when she went in for a routine gynecological exam on November 27th of 2017. During the exam, the doctor felt a suspicious mass on her abdomen. He ordered blood work and then Betty and I passed some anxious hours overnight waiting for the results. The real scare came when the doctor himself called the next day in the middle of the day. That’s never a good sign.
The news wasn’t good—but at least the doctors caught the cancer early. If there was ever a good argument in favor of routine screenings, this would be it.
From that point on, everything started moving very fast. A referral was made to a gynecological oncologist, a biopsy was taken, and Betty was scheduled for a complete hysterectomy. During what felt like a never-ending surgery, the doctors discovered a two-pound mass. Ovarian cancer—and it had spread.
This news hit us like a two-by-four. Betty and I had done our research so we knew about the high mortality rate and rate of recurrence.
The plan was put in place. A month of debulking the tumor and then chemo—during the Christmas holiday season, of all times. Chemo was not exactly a walk in the park. Betty had chemo brain, and came home from her treatments zonked out. She slept so much, she lost entire days. But chemo wasn’t as bad as all the horror stories we had heard either.
In fact, one day, Betty said to one of the nurses. “What’s the deal? I’m not throwing up all the time. Are you sure the chemo is working?”
The nurse laughed and said, “You’re thinking of chemo the way it used to be! We’ve come a long way since then.”